In preparation for the upcoming spring turkey season we will be running, by popular request, our informative series on the wild turkey. This series covers the different subspecies of wild turkey and highlights information on their physical appearance, habitates, ranges, breeding habits and more. Along with photos of each of the different subspecies we hope to give you the basics as well as perhaps wet your appetite to pursue some of these wonderful birds in their home ranges.
 

There has always been some question as to the origins of the wild turkey’s name; some believe the name came from the Indian's name "furkee" or "firkee". Others contend that Christopher Columbus named turkeys "tuka," after the Tamil word for peacock. There are those who suggest that a physician who served under Columbus, Luis de Torres, named the bird "tukki," which in Hebrew means "big bird". There was also a guinea fowl from the country, Turkey with which the bird was sometimes confused. There is however, no debate that the wild turkey is native to the North American continent.

Today there are two types of wild turkey in the world, they inhabit most of the continental US, parts of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. Both types are extremely fast and agile, running at speeds between 15 to 30 mph, and flying at up to 55 mph over short distances. The Ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), only inhabits roughly the 50,000 square mile area of Yucatan Peninsula range. The North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), is divided into five distinct subspecies; the Eastern, the Merriam’s, the Rio Grande, the Osceola, and the Gould’s, and inhabits most of the continental US, and parts of Mexico.


Wild turkeys were harvested to a much greater extent by America's first European settlers then they were by Native Americans. Intense commercial hunting pressure and habitat destruction from the ever expanding population streaming into the country, were the two primary factors responsible for the sharp decline of the birds’ numbers. By 1920, they no longer could be found in 18 of their home-range states and as late as the Great Depression, fewer than 30,000 wild turkeys remained in the entire United States. In the 1940's however, our nation's hunters, wildlife agencies and conservation organizations intervened, trapping and transfer techniques applied by wildlife management groups began to restore wild turkey populations which then rebounded dramatically. Since then wild turkeys have successfully been transplanted to almost all 50 states, and with a current population in excess of 6.4 million birds roaming around North America it’s understandably why turkey hunting is the fastest growing type of hunting.


With the successful restoration of the wild turkey and the burgeoning numbers of turkey hunters it was only a matter of time before the creation of a scoring system that would set a standard for what a “trophy” bird would be, and then came the subsequent birth of the concept of the “Grand Slam”
With the current rise in popularity of turkey hunting many folks are looking out of state and out of the country for a little variety in their spring gobbler venue. An avid turkey hunter may aspire to any or all of the “slams”.


A slam is a compilation of the different subspecies of the wild turkey. The “Grand Slam” consists of the Eastern, the Merriam’s, the Osceola, and the Rio Grande. To move up to a “Royal Slam” one would need to include the Gould’s subspecies. Finally the “World Slam” would require the additional harvest of the Ocellated subspecies. Also a hybrid variation could be added to the “World Slam” to make the ultimate “Seven Bird World Slam”.


Once having achieved one or all of these slams, some hunters go on to set even more difficult challenges based on the slams, such as a double slam, or a slam with a different weapon. Switching to a muzzleloader or a bow can add a whole new dimension to a slam that has already been achieved.


As the series continues look for our first feature subspecies, the Eastern, both here on our site and in the field off the barrel of your gun.